Last year was a bit of a bust in terms of writing. It was a year of infinite variety in terms of the dayjob - new role and schedule that started the back end of 2014, and then training for a new job. My boyfriend got a new job too, which meant a change to his schedule that took some getting used to. As a result I had pretty much no brain for anything else the whole year.

This year, although I'm still working my way through the training period for the new job, I want to get back on track. The problem is getting motivated, because there's always something that needs doing around the house, or I just don't feel like writing. Tracking wordcount doesn't work, I just end up feeling demoralised at never doing enough. Plus anything involving spreadsheets is useless, as I actually have to turn on the computer and open the document to get any benefit. So this year I had to find something else to motivate me.

I've gone for rubber stamps and stickers. Any day I write I get a garden-themed stamp on my calendar. It doesn't matter if I've only written a few sentences, as long as I've actively worked on a project. Blogging counts for this, as otherwise I wouldn't, but only my regular Tuesday posts. If I finish a first draft, I get an owl sticker. If I polish a draft and get it submission-ready, I get a cat sticker. Blogging doesn't count toward stickers.

It seems to be working so far. I've worked on a particular story project most days, finished a piece of flash, almost completed a poem draft, and am about to start working on editing a piece. Not only does it satisfy my inner twelve year old, but it also gives me a visual record of what I've achieved that isn't reliant on achieving arbitrary numbers. I do enough of that at work - which, thinking about it, is probably why I'm so resistant to doing it in my writing as well.

And, of course, when I run out of stickers, I can treat myself to more!